TWO Filipino male former registered nurses in San Diego were sentenced to jail last week on Tuesday, May 12, for reportedly engaging in lewd sexual acts in front of their then 98-year-old patient.
Alfredo V. Ruiz and Russel Torralba, both 43, each pleaded guilty in February to a felony charge of inflicting mental suffering on an elder. Both have lost their nursing licenses.
San Diego Superior Court Judge Timothy R. Walsh sentenced both defendants to the maximum custody under a plea bargain and placed them on probation for five years. Torralba was sentenced to a year in county jail, minus the 273 days for which he already has credit. Ruiz was sentenced to 325 days in jail, and has credit for 10 days behind bars. They were immediately taken into custody following the court hearing.
“A nurse is supposed to be vigilant,” Judge Walsh said. “Nurses are supposed to be sensitive and caring, given that people trust them to look after their parents, grandparents or children—people they hold dear. If you can’t be these things, don’t do that job.”
Deputy District Attorney Paul Greenwood has said that the defendants can be seen in surveillance video engaging in explicit sexual conduct in front of the bedridden patient, an elderly woman who had suffered a stroke and was unable to speak. The video was recorded over three weeks in 2011.
The victim’s grandson, Eduardo Deicas, said in court on Tuesday, May 19 that his grandmother—now 102—is “the matriarch of the family,” who raised four children and taught them the importance of having respect for oneself and for others. She is doing well now, according to a family lawyer.
The Deicas family was paying hundreds of thousands of dollars a day for in-home care for their grandmother, and were concerned about the quality of the nurses’ work. They placed security cameras in her home and found 53 incidents of the defendants’ fondling each other in front of the victim, often while she waved her arm or used other forms of nonverbal communication to protest.
“They were clearly aware what they were doing was wrong,” Deicas said in court. “As far as I’m concerned, they should rot in jail.”
Attorneys for Torralba and Ruiz said their clients were remorseful for the lewd acts. “Mr. Ruiz does not take his conduct lightly,” said Atty. Dan Greene, who described his client’s behavior as “immoral” and “indecent.”
“He has admitted culpability and is ashamed of his conduct. If he could take it back, he would.”
Elliott Kanter, who represented Torralba, said both defendants were “ignorant” of the effect their conduct could have on someone else.
They noted, however, that the nurses’ were not accused of inappropriately touching or physically abusing the elderly victim, and argued unsuccessfully that their clients should not receive any more jail time.
“There was never a true recognition that they had done something wrong to the individual,” said William Berman, a lawyer for the victim’s family. “The video itself is quite disturbing, but there are parts of the video clip where you can actually see [the patient] raising her hand as if to say enough or stop.”
“On the one hand, my clients are happy that [Torralba and Ruiz] received the maximum amount of time per our laws, but they’re disappointed that the laws don’t provide for stiffer penalties for acts of abuse or neglect of our elderly,” he said.
Berman added that this is an “isolated case” that should not represent other Filipino nurses who do respectable, excellent, high-quality work in caregiving.
The California Department of Consumer Affairs has conducted an investigation into the nurses’ employer, AMS Home Care Solutions, which has said it has done “exhaustive and thorough background checks” on all of its employees, and will provide “all needed support to ensure all criminal acts are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.” (Allyson Escobar/AJPress with reports from Inquirer, UT San Diego, Huffington Post)
